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The Non-Responsive Sax (a lesson in Neck Fitting)

Steve

Clarinet CE/Moderator
Staff member
CE/Moderator
Non-responsive tenor saxophone


What makes a saxophone non-responsive?
There's many things, every thing from the player all the way down to a leak in the low Bb or any pad above it, a cut pad, a leak in a seam between the body and bow, a spring that does not keep the pad closed upon a certain amount of air pressure, too hard reed, mouthpiece rails not finished well, or the tip rail not finished well, etc.

In many forums it will be stated that the player has to make a better airstream, better air support, etc etc etc
But many times certain things are overlooked as making a horn non-responsive.

I recently bought a Silver plated mk VII neck for my mk VII tenor. I needed a second neck for ages for use with metal mouthpieces. For some reason many metal mouthpieces have a smaller neck shank diameter which squishes the cork and makes rubber mouthpieces too loose if you use a metal mpc a lot.

I did a basic air pressure test on it and it passed with no problems. ie, no leaks on the octave pad and no leaks anywhere else (seam, tenon to neck seam, etc). So all seemed good.

Normally I test any set up changes against some fast technical exercises that require immediate response. In this case it's the old Rubank blue book Advanced Method for Sax Vol 1. I've had this book since the mid 1980s. The book goes through many technical exercises of 3rd, 4ths, 5th and octave jumps. To me, it really requires a horn that is set up very nicely, especially when you tend to play fast anyways.


The new neck just .. just .. drove me CRAZY. It was non-responsive. 3rds just did not come out cleanly and fast. Fast articulation, the note was "paused" a bit which to me was non-responsive. Something was wrong. I know because my other neck I had no problem (same mouthpiece, reed, ligature, player, neckstrap and horn. The only difference was the neck. So finger pointing was very specific ==> the neck.

After making sure the octave mechanism and horn's mechanism was well set, testing and I still had issues. I replaced the leather pad. This improved it some but it still drove me nuts.

The other issue this horn had was the tenon was VERY TIGHT on the body. After measuing it the tenon was basically 1/4mm non-oval.

So after rechecking everything each time i knew the next step was making the neck fit the body better.


In order to do this you need a swedging system and collets specific for the neck.
Here are collets
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and here is the neck a specific collet and the swedging tool


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Here is the neck and the collet on it (the collet though is backward, just for showing us).


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..
Here is the collet in the tool though backwards so you can see it sticking out

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One essentially tightens the collet a little bit at a time while rotating the neck. Here I show 4 positions for the neck but I rotate it 45 degrees and swedge it down.


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After several swedgings repeated the neck now fits nicely into the horn's body. This is a slow and deliberate process. If you go to fast you can crack the tenon, make it wavy or damage the collet.


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Upon playing the instrument now the response is fast and accurate. Perfectly playing just like the other neck that I have. All is set.
 

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Now my son's bari (from school) has a loose neck. I decided to make the neck fit tighter.
I made a quick fix for him earlier, which was essentially teflon tape. It made the horn much more responsive and sounded a lot better.
View attachment 2733


Here we take the bari neck and put it onto a "can opener" device. This expands the neck tenon as you rotate the handle and the tenon rotates, slowly expanding the tenon.


View attachment 2734
..
View attachment 2735


Then I swedge it with a different die to make sure it is smooth all the way around.
View attachment 2736


Bari complete, just like the Tenor.
 
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